nipping nurser

Since the giant baby has been sick and teething he has been nipping or BITING while nursing! YEOWCH! Besides the obvious "no bite" statement and prying him off. The nipping doesnt seem to phase him. If I put him down and tell him he's all done, no more nurse. You know the drill, he screams, crys, stomps his feet, and has a royal meltdown. Im pretty sure its because of the teething because he doesnt always know that he's doing it.

The simple answer here that EVERYONE seems to express to me solicited or not, "just quit nursing." I wanted to blog about this problem because I KNOW that Im not the only mama to go through this painful stage.

The not so simple answer to "just quit nursing" with nipping nursers:

1) First, you cant just stop! Not only would that be painful for mama with an established milk supply. That could lead to mastitis, a painful breast infection. Clogged milk ducts, painful lumps caused by backed up milk. Lets not forget engorged breasts, painful big boobies full of milk! IF you have been lucky enough not to have any of the first two problems, just recall how painful it was when you first got your milk in. If you stop nursing cold turkey, that lovely feeling will likely return.

2) More importantly, quitting nursing cold turkey would be extremely confusing and traumatic to an established nurser. The giant baby has a few favorite things, his blankie, binky, and nursing. Just as if you were to cold turkey take away any of those he would be confused and least but most annoying, TICKED!

3) Established nursers tend not to partake of other milk at just over a year. The giant baby is 13 months old. Another point, the giant baby doesnt tolerate or like milk much. He will drink milk from left over cereal bowls of his brother and daddy, but he later spits up. Ne NEVER spits up otherwise.

4) Established nursers may not take a bottle! The giant baby barely ever took a bottle. He figured it out very early on that if he held out long enough, I came to rescue him. Eventually he just refused it all together. He hated breast milk in a bottle. My hubs claimed he would even look around for me. It was extremely frustrating to waste a whole bottle full of breast milk, so we switched to formula thinking that at least it wasnt my hard work being poured down the drain. He treated the formula like "poison" and refused it. I dont blame him, but still! He drinks fabulously from a soft spout sippy, but its not as comforting to him. Lucky for us, we never have to deal with weaning from the bottle like we did with big brother.

The best way to deal with nursing mishaps are explained here by the la leche league

If you really want to wean, do it gradually , it will be best for you and your baby. But please dont just weant because you are being preasured to! Many babies benefit from nursing well beyond one year old!

A helpful book may be The Nursing Mothers Guide to Weaning